Moan, moan, moan..

By @buxtongooner

Mrs Arteta

I’ve got a mate, known simply as ‘Misery’. It’s not just that he can be a miserable sod, that’s a given, it’s because he likes to moan. Example – at the end of our 2-2 draw at White Hart Lane in 2004, he moaned. It wasn’t enough for him that we’d won the league in their back yard (again), it was the fact that at two-nil and cruising, we’d let the game slip and handed them a draw. Sound familiar? There’s a lot of it about at the moment. The moaning.

 Moan. Moan. Moan.


Take the recent transfer window. Tuesday was full of delight with the signings of Per Mertesacker, Chu Young Park and Andre Santos, and the promise of what was to come on Wednesday – surely a top class midfielder to replace Cesc.

Wednesday? Twitter went barmy, utterly barmy. All day. Up unitl eleven o’clock. But, hang on a minute, REWIND. Let’s be fair, now. Park and Santos didn’t get too much of a slating, and I’m guessing that was because the vast majority of us didn’t know an awful lot about them, some had actually never heard of them and probably only a handful had ever seen them play. So most were just like, uh, ok, yeah why not, still got the rest of today and tomorrow. But - Mertesacker. MERTESACKER? Fuck off. You’re joking. He’s too slow. Useless.

 Moan. Moan.

 I could go on. Per Mertesacker is a six foot fucking six centre half, who at the ripe old age of 26(ish) has played 75 times for his country. He is exactly the type of defender we have been crying out for, someone tall, strong, with the aerial ability to clear the ball - and if United, City or Chelsea got him, I imagine the moaning would have reverted to the ‘we should have got him, he’s brilliant, ffs’ type of thing.

 Moan. Moan..

Wednesday. Rumours flying around about Hazard, Goetse and various other top class children. So what do The Arsenal do? Fuck everyone off and sign, on loan, Yossi Benayoun. Yes, somewhat imjury prone, but a very good player with bags of experience. And then, the icing on the transfer cake, the husband of Lorena Bernal, former Miss Spain. Moan. He’s alright. He’s no Cesc, is he? Doesn’t get in the Spanish team, Always injured. No one is good enough to replace Cesc, not yet anyway. End of.

 Arteta is a very good footballer; he’s creative, scores goals and, like Park, can take a free kick, something we’ve been missing for a long time. With the height of Mertesacker at set pieces and the guile of Benayoun it gives us options at long last, and the added experience will give the younger players’ time to grow. Add to this little lot the signings of Gervinho, who I think will be a revelation, Oxlade-Chamberlain, our very own Carl Jenkinson, and the emergence of the beast that is Frimpong, I think we’ve got a very tidy and competitive squad more than able to finish top four. Things that were looking so bleak at six o’clock last Sunday (sorry) are now looking up. Potentially, this a great bunch of new signings. Forget Cahill, forget Hazard and the rest, this is the squad we are stuck with until January at least, so please, stop the moaning, and let’s put all of our energies into supporting them.